Tag: design with color

Posted in painting, quilting

Wednesday WIP: Scrappy quilt update

Posted on by Laura Kate

I feel like I have been assembling four square blocks all summer long. I have sewn five sets of eight blocks, each set confined to one color in my analogous palette.

Finally, I am nearing the end of the block-building phase. There were two glitches that lengthened the time spent building blocks. Firstly, I ran out of scraps and couldn’t find the colors I needed at Hobby Lobby. This led me to adding color to my white or pale fabrics by painting them with Jacquard Dye-na-flow paint. I painted the featured 4 x 2 and 1/2 strips AND the 1 and 1/4 border strips to get the effects I was seeking. It was kind of fun, in a time-consuming sort of way.

Here is a sampling of some painted strips/blocks in green hues.

I ended up needing painted fabric in blue-violet, teal AND yellow green.

The second issue arose when laid out my blocks. I took an intense dislike to any block that had dark borders. To fix this, I cut apart many blocks and replaced the dark strips with light colored fabrics (mostly were created with paint on white fabric.)

I now have enough blocks to form the five regions of my quilt. I have sewn a center block for each region using black fabric and hand-painted feature fabrics. To create some breathing room between my blocks, I made sashing with black fabric. Believing the black fabric was too boring, I cut the sashing randomly and inserted “sticks” of multi-hued batik fabric. Here is a the “blue-violet” region laid out and ready to sew.

I’m excited to start assembling the quilt, but a little nervous that the pieces won’t fit together properly.

Posted in quilting

Fabric Strips Saga: Chapter Three

Posted on by Laura Kate

My obsession with strips continues. First, let me share an image of the pieced abstract landscape that I have been working on most recently.

The work at this stage looks about as I expected, although I feel kind of let down by it. I’m also stumped as to how I will proceed with the surface embellishments and quilting. As I ponder, I have laid it aside.

Leftover strips are hanging out, and they keep drawing my attention. I started noodling around with them, cutting and sewing together. Since I had used the 1- and 1/4-inch-wide strips for the landscape art quilt, I wondered what else I could do with this size. Pulling out some 2 and 1/2 inch scraps, I start sewing strips together, again.

Well geez, first I need a little bit of structure to this game. How about a palette? I decide to try analogous colors. Pulling out my color wheel, I spun it around to show that teal blue color in the center, surrounded by its four closest relatives.

Now I am really in my comfort zone. My stash contains many scraps in this range, leftovers from some favorite projects.

If I sew two thin strips on either side of a 2 1/2 inch precut, then cut that piece down to four inches, I get a nice-looking square block. I decided to stick to monochromatic fabrics for each. Here are some examples.

Combining four of these gives me a seven and 1/2 inch square.

What if I sew four of these together?

Hm. To me it looks too busy while also looking kind of boring. I can do better.

How about inserting some sashing? I have a longing to try dark background fabric with this palette.

Now we’re talking. But to get more negative space into the picture, I could put the blocks on point and space them out with a background block.

Ah, the drama it beginning to happen. I sit down with graph paper and plot out a lap sized quilt using this on-point configuration.

This could be wonderful. Perhaps I can create focal points in the dark blocks by inserting some bits of hand-painted fabric. Something like this leaf, which is left over from my very first quilt.

Gosh I feel better. Going from a vague notion to a planned design is so satisfying. Even though I had no intention of sewing up another lap quilt, I’m ready to go. The trick will be to buy as little fabric as possible and still get the look I want. I’m up for that challenge as well.

Posted in quilting

SAHRR Quilt Round 1 Challenge

Posted on by Laura Kate

I was so glad that Anja chose the prompt of Curves for the first round of this year’s Round Robin quilt along. In working with the vintage weavings chosen for my center block, I had observed that the maker had used lots of curved lines in her color patterns. Some were vine-like, some looked like hairpins and some are just little wriggles. I was keen to echo these curves in the quilt as I built it.

To start my round, I chose four fabrics with colors and patterns that reinforce the theme of the four elements. I am using the linen-colored background fabric to make the other side of the curve. Next I made a little template for the corner blocks. These will have a quarter circle in the inside corners using the background fabric. Here are my pieces, cut and ready to be sewn.

First I joined strips of two different colors for each side of the block. Then I cut strips in the background fabric to match the length of the block sides

After sewing together the corner blocks, it was time to make my curves. With the front of fabric facing me, I overlapped the two strips and just sliced a curve through the center of the strips with my rotary cutter.

Here is the first side sewn together and ready to attach to the center block

And here it is, sewn and pressed.

Side two and one corner block are added.

Working carefully, matching up edges as well as I could, I finished this round in about three hours. Here is my block, pressed and squared up.

I like the way the dark colors draw the eye to the three woven pieces,
which are outlined in the background color.

It now measures 18- and 1/2-inches square and is ready for the next round. I had no trouble with the woven samples shifting or bunching. I think my tactic of backing the pieces with muslin did the trick.

If you would like to see how other participants are making their curves, check out the linky-party, below.

https://anjaquilts.blogspot.com/2022/01/stay-at-home-round-robin-round-1-curves.html

To learn more about the Stay At Home Round Robin event, visit Quilting Gail’s blog.

https://quiltinggail.com/2022/01/10/sahrr-2022-getting-started-center-block/
Posted in knitting

Summer’s Yarn Bounty

Posted on by Laura Kate

I finally got around to taking photos of the yarn purchased during this year’s KnitPicks summer yarn sale. It includes yarns I have used in the past and a few new ones. With an eye toward knitting socks as holiday gifts, I have focused on fingering weight yarns.

This is a new offering from KnitPicks. Static is a fingering weight blend of superwash wool and nylon – the same fiber content as their Stroll line. I guess what makes this yarn different is the self-striping color sequence. This colorway is called Paradise. I thought the bright colors would be nice for children’s socks.

Gloss is a luxury blend of 70% merino wool and 30% silk. I have used it in the worsted weight to make vests and shawls. The fingering weight has all the attributes of its larger sister – softness and a light sheen. I bought it to find out if silk helps the socks wear longer in the heel and ball of foot areas. I also plan to use it as the solid color contrast in 2-color shawls. Colorways shown are clarity, blackberry and navy.

Hawthorne has become a new favorite for me in the fingering weight group. I like its plumpness and high twist. It is made from superwash highland wool, which pills less than merino wool does. The kettle-dyed line (Poseiden is shown here) give nice color variation to items knitted in basic stitches. I also purchased two painted yarns: Burlingame is the top one, Vancouver shown in the bottom of the photo.

This month I will be teaching a short course on knitting shawls. I plan to use these yarns to demonstrate how they can bring pizzazz to a simple garter ridge pattern.

Beyond that, I have no clue of what these yarns want to become. But I will enjoy discovering it.

Posted in quilting

SAHRR #5 – The Stars Above Us

Posted on by Laura Kate

After putting in a few hours of sewing yesterday and today, I find that I have something to show for this round after all. First of all, here is my assortment of wonky stars.

There are two sets of four – the smallest will finish out at 3 inches, the larger at about 4 1/2. While it took some patience to stitch on the tiny scraps of star points, I found myself enjoying the process. And in the end, they are so darned cute! I also made them fiery stars, in hot shades of yellow, orange and red. They jump right out from the pale blue background.

As I stitched along, though, I found my stars getting less and less wonky!

First Star
Last star

The blue border will be six inches wide. This will give the eye a good break from the dark and busy center of the quilt while allowing the stars to shimmer. Here are the assembled borders laid in place.

This project is so big, it is almost impossible to take a decent picture.

As you can see, the border is not attached yet. I am in the process of quilting the center body. My plan is to make separate quilt sandwiches for each border, attach them and then finish up the quilting by working around the edges. Or perhaps I will quilt them before sewing them on. Anyone have a recommendation for me on how best to manage this step?

If you would like to see the work of other quilters doing this challenge, follow these links: